The War on Drugs Didn't Work, Eh?

If you are a reader of my posts on drug abuse science you will have noticed that it rarely takes long for a commenter or three to opine some version of “The (US) War on Drugs is a complete and utter failure”. Similarly, while Big Eddie mostly comments on the liberty aspects (rather than the effectiveness) of the WoD himself, a commenter to his posts will usually weigh in, commenting to a similar effect.
Now I’m open to all the arguments about personal liberty trade offs, economic costs, sentencing disparities, violations of other sovereign nations and the like. Nevertheless, I’m most interested in the fundamental question of whether the War on Drugs worked. That is, to reduce drug use in the US. For those who believe it has not worked, I have a few figures I would like explained to me.

Congratulations Dr. Ventii!!!

Karen Ventii of the Science to Life blog recently defended her dissertation. I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Ventii on a job well done and look forward to an undoubtedly stellar career in science and medical writing
Run on over to Science to Life, read over a few posts and I think you will look forward to her next career steps as well, particularly if opportunities should afford themselves for public writing. It also wouldn’t hurt to leave a kind word on the accomplishment!